2026 Lenten Season - Day 4

We continue the tradition of 40 days of Lent-related devotionals (46 counting the Sundays).
We will share "Journey to the Cross" by Paul David Tripp.

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God intends suffering to pry open our hands so we let go of the things of this earth and hold more tightly to Jesus. 

What has you in its hold? Don’t rush to answer. Stop and give this question some consideration. What do you feel you can’t live without? What has the ability to make or break your day? What has the power to make you very sad? What can produce almost instant happiness? The loss of what would leave you a bit depressed? What do you tend to attach your identity to? What tends to control your wishes? What do others have that causes you to envy? If you could get just one thing, what would it be? The absence of what tempts you to question God’s goodness? What does your use of money tell you about what’s important to you? What fills your fantasies and your dreams? What would the videos of your last six weeks reveal about what has you in its hold? What physical idols tempt you most? What relational idols attract you the most? Is there a place where you’re asking the creation to do what only the Creator can?

Lent is an important tool in the inescapable battle that rages in all our hearts between worship and service of the Creator and worship and service of the creation. Lent calls us to remember once again that sin reduces us all to idolaters somehow, someway. It gives us a season to take time and reflect on things that have taken too strong a hold on us, things that we have come to crave too strongly and love too dearly. It reminds us that often things that we are holding tightly have actually taken an even tighter hold on us.

Here’s the core of the struggle: as long as sin still resides in our hearts, we will have an inclination to ask the physical creation to do for us what the Creator alone is able to do. Everyone is in search of true and lasting joy. Everyone wants peace of heart. Everyone wants to be content. Everyone is searching for life. Everyone wants to be deeply, fully, and perfectly loved. Everyone wants a heart that is satisfied. So everyone is on a quest to find these things even when they don’t know they are. Everyone looks for identity. Everyone searches for something that will give them meaning and purpose. Everyone searches for something to hook their hope to. In this way, everyone is born searching for God. They just don’t know it.

Because creation is so obvious (you can see it, you can taste it, you can feel it, and you can smell it), it’s tempting to look to it to deliver all the things for which we are all searching. But satisfaction of our hearts is not the purpose of the physical creation; it actually has a much higher purpose. Creation was made to point us to the one who alone has the power to satisfy our longing hearts. He is the bread that will satisfy our hunger. He is the living water that makes us thirst no longer. With every vista, on every day, with every new experience and each new look, creation has been designed to point us to God.

But there’s even more to think about here. Looking to creation to do what it was not meant to do will not only disappoint us; it will enslave us. Idols never just disappoint us; they addict us as well. Because the buzz of joy that creation gives us is so short, we have to go back again and again, and soon we’re convinced we cannot live without the next hit. What we tightly hold onto takes hold of us, now commanding of us what only God should ever command: our hearts. And what holds our hearts will dictate our words and behavior.

It is possible to think that you are a God-worshiper because he is the object of your formal religious worship, but when it comes to the day-by-day affections of your heart, something or someone else could be in control. And it’s not always that we are under the control of evil things. Often good things have control over us that they should not have. As I have written elsewhere, good things become bad things when they become ruling things.

So how about letting yourself suffer loss for a season? Let go of things you tend to prize. Let this season of sacrifice loosen your hands and free your heart. Let go of some of your comforts, things that have perhaps comforted you too much, so that your heart is free to seek a better Comforter. Pray that a season of going without will refocus your eyes and reposition your heart. God is good at using seasons of suffering to cause us to let go of our dependency on created things and reach out in dependency to our Creator, Savior, and Lord. 

May this season’s discomforts lead us to find lasting comfort in him.

GOING DEEPER

Reflection Questions

1. Spend some time meditating on and perhaps journaling about the diagnostic questions from the devotional. Based on that exercise, what are some idols you are tempted to bow down to?

2. What things do you ask the physical creation to do that only God can do? If you’re stumped, take a look at where you seek pleasure and what causes conflict in your closest relationships.

3. Now you are ready to answer the real question: What do you need to give up, for a season or more permanently, to root the idols out of your heart?

Read Luke 9:23–25 and Romans 6:1–14, and prayerfully consider what you might give up during this season of Lent as a way to find your comfort in Christ. 

Luke 9:23–25

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

Romans 6:1–14

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live;[a] do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

Present Your Case (reprint by request)

“Present the case for your idols,” says the Lord. “Let them show what they can do,” says the King of Israel. “Let them try to tell us what happened long ago so that we may consider the evidence. Or let them tell us what the future holds, so we can know what’s going to happen. Yes, tell us what will occur in the days ahead. Then we will know you are gods. In fact, do anything—good or bad! Do something that will amaze and frighten us. But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Those who choose you pollute themselves.
Isaiah 41: 21-24 NLT

I look at statues of foreign gods and I wonder, "How can anyone worship that - or think that's worthy of honor or praise?" (I might step on some toes here...but remember, Jesus is still our Healer and our Redeemer and He calls us to forgive one another...) And as I pondered how anyone could be so blinded or dense as to think something made of stone or wood - something with no life in it could be a god, the Lord served me up a big helping of humble pie...

For you see, I have worshiped at the throne of the Dairy Queen. I have built my own tower of CDs and DVDs. I have been a willing slave to untold hours at several jobs for the praise of humans. Are these things I could bring as acceptable offerings into God's Temple? I have a wild imagination and a fair amount of reasoning ability, but even I can't reconcile "Whiskey River take my mind..." as speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; (Ephesians 5:19).

Here is what God has to say about Himself.
"I'm first, I'm last, and everything in between. I'm the only God there is. Who compares with me? Speak up. See if you measure up. From the beginning, who else has always announced what's coming? So what is coming next? Anybody want to venture a try? Don't be afraid, and don't worry: Haven't I always kept you informed, told you what was going on? You're my eyewitnesses: Have you ever come across a God, a real God, other than me? There's no Rock like me that I know of."
Isaiah 44: 6b-8 The Message

He goes on to explain about idols...
All those who make no-god idols don't amount to a thing, and what they work so hard at making is nothing. Their little puppet-gods see nothing and know nothing—they're total embarrassments! Who would bother making gods that can't do anything, that can't "god"? Watch all the no-god worshipers hide their faces in shame. Watch the no-god makers slink off humiliated when their idols fail them. Get them out here in the open. Make them face God-reality. The blacksmith makes his no-god, works it over in his forge, hammering it on his anvil—such hard work! He works away, fatigued with hunger and thirst.

The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels and planes into human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose: Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach full and his feet warmed by the fire: "Ah, this is the life." And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it, "Save me. You're my god."

Pretty stupid, wouldn't you say? Don't they have eyes in their heads? Are their brains working at all? Doesn't it occur to them to say, "Half of this tree I used for firewood: I baked bread, roasted meat, and enjoyed a good meal. And now I've used the rest to make an abominable no-god. Here I am praying to a stick of wood!" This lover of emptiness, of nothing, is so out of touch with reality, so far gone, that he can't even look at what he's doing, can't even look at the no-god stick of wood in his hand and say, "This is crazy..."
Isaiah 44:9-20 The Message

Here is what God, our Redeemer, declares to those who acknowledge and repent (verse 22): "I've wiped the slate of all your wrongdoings. There's nothing left of your sins. Come back to me, come back. I've redeemed you."

I never met a no-god or idol that could do any of that. And with the mistakes I make, I need a God who can...and will. And because of His love and mercy and His plan of salvation - bought and paid for by the precious Blood of Jesus - my case has been presented on the Cross.

Prayer;

Father,
             Let us never lose sight of that which is holy and righteous and good. Let us never forget that our lives have been bought with the price You paid for them. May our hearts and our allegiance be only to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

* Finding the Balance

“Now build a new cart, and find two cows that have just given birth to calves. Make sure the cows have never been yoked to a cart. Hitch the cows to the cart, but shut their calves away from them in a pen. Put the Ark of the Lord on the cart, and beside it place a chest containing the gold rats and gold tumors you are sending as a guilt offering. Then let the cows go wherever they. If they cross the border of our land and go to Beth-shemesh, we will know it was the Lord who brought this great disaster upon us. If they don’t, we will know it was not his hand that caused the plague. It came simply by chance.”

1st Samuel 6:7-9 NLT

Simply by chance. A coincidence. 

The story behind our text today is that the Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant. Such triumph! At least, that's what they thought until they took the Ark to Ashdod into the temple of their idol Dagon. (See 1st Samuel 5). In the morning, with no one there, the idol had fallen with its face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. The people were sure it was just a coincidence, so they set the idol back up. The next morning, the same thing had happened, only that time the head and hands had been broken off the idol and were lying in the doorway. 

Keep in mind, the Philistines were not godly - they didn't understand right away. From that point on, when they entered the temple to worship Dagon, they didn't acknowledge that it was a broken, defeated idol per se, they just wouldn't step on the threshold where its head and hands had been. It reminds me of the response we get when we confront someone's unbelief with Truth from the Word and they respond with, "Oh, I know...but it's all good. At least I'm...." 

Well, no. Actually, it's not all good. The point is this. The Philistines were trying to make what is holy conform to a pagan lifestyle, instead of having their pagan lifestyle changed by what is holy.

I'm continually amazed at our seemingly superhuman capacity and ability to accommodate and allow the same thing in our lives today. We want to balance out - and make allowances for - our favorite sin by being "really good" in something else - or worse - by casting stones at someone else's sin. "Well, at least I don't do such-and-such, like so-and-so..."  

Newsflash! We can't balance holy and sin. We can't do enough good to balance out or dilute our sin so that it's palatable to God. 

There is only one way to find balance in our lives between our humanness and holiness. One way. Jesus. 

He hung in the balance for us.

Prayer:

Father,

         Open our eyes of understanding to Your Truth. Reveal to us Your pure definition of living a holy and righteous life before You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen